The general decline in standards today

[V.C. Brunswick]

With a student body president named Lancelot Naipier-Kane, why does that not surprise me? As it is, Lancelot or Lance already sounds like a fratboy name.

 

[LizzieMaine]

With a student body president named Lancelot Naipier-Kane, why does that not surprise me?

The real world has, at long last, transcended all possible parody. Every cartoon ever published in "The Onion" now walks in the flesh before us.

 

[rjb1]

Yep - just the name "Lancelot Napier-Kane" spells trouble.
Several of the old-school engineering faculty here, who became engineers because they worked on hot-rods or ham-radios or etc., wish that we could review the admissions list before the kids get fully entered to engineering school.
Our rules would be:
1. Any hyphenated name: OUT!
2. Any Roman numeral after the name: OUT!
3. Any boy-kid named Chad, Biff, or Trey: OUT!
4. Any girl-kid with a two-way name - Taylor Whitney or Whitney Taylor: OUT!
We're convinced that we could get a better group of middle-class kids who would be better engineers, and even more important, would not have the arrogance and sense of entitlement of the Lancelot Napier-Kanes of the world.

 

[HudsonHawk]

2. Any Roman numeral after the name: OUT!

What if they used an Arabic numeral after their name like Stanley Marsh 3?

 

[LizzieMaine]

3. Any boy-kid named Chad, Biff, or Trey: OUT!

I have a cousin named Biff -- he was one of identical twins, and his brother is named Bing. Closest he ever came to being an engineering student, though, was when he tried to figure out why the tire mounting machine at the gas station blew up in his face.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I have a cousin named Biff -- he was one of identical twins, and his brother is named Bing. Closest he ever came to being an engineering student, though, was when he tried to figure out why the tire mounting machine at the gas station blew up in his face.

They shoulda named him "Bang".

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

They shoulda named him "Bang".

If they were quads they could have been named "Bing", "Bang", "Badda" and "Boom".

 

[rjb1]

"What if they used an Arabic numeral after their name like Stanley Marsh 3?"

I haven't encountered one of those personally, but to be on the safe side: OUT!

As for poor cousin Biff, being closely involved with an exploding tire machine is a good enough disqualifier for engineering school, regardless of name.

 

[Zombie_61]

Introducing the next generation of overprivileged, overentitled upper-middle-class white kids:

Brunswick High School Seniors Want Town To Spend Over $10,000 Cap On Graduation

For those future recipients of corporate welfare -- and their grasping, amoral parents -- for whom folding chairs in the gym just aren't good enough.

"'I believe that pressuring seniors to focus on fundraising increases the overall anxiety and stress of the students,' Naipier-Kane told the board..."

Increased anxiety and stress? Sounds to me like good preparation for when they enter the workplace.

 

[Stearmen]

3. Any boy-kid named Chad, Biff, or Trey: OUT!

Hey, my barbers name is Biff! Biff does a great job, even shaves the neck, and hot towel on the neck. Biff is also pretty good looking. In fact, if Biff wasn't already happily married, I would ask Biff out! My barber was named Biff, because her little sister could not pronounce Elizabeth.

 

[LuvMyMan]

"'I believe that pressuring seniors to focus on fundraising increases the overall anxiety and stress of the students,' Naipier-Kane told the board..."

Increased anxiety and stress? Sounds to me like good preparation for when they enter the workplace.

I agree. Far too many kids graduate and actually cannot even figure out what they read in a newspaper, have to ask "what does this word mean" and I have met a few that were to be on the "honor student" roll, that could not even fill out the forms for that without having help from a parent! Geez...the form is so hard...all those intense questions like : Name, Address, Employer (if applicable), Community Organizations, Clubs or active involvement in National Societies such as Scouts, etc. Must be pretty tough for a kid to have to fill out something like that now, hum?

I am thankful at this time, I have no Children attending any schools. I guess I would elect to home school if I did have Children right now of that age. Sure, there are some very dedicated Teachers but, even a great Teacher can only do so much....and they normally get it from both sides. I could NEVER be a Teacher, and as discussing this issue with my Husband, he also feels the same way.....we'd both be locked up from either doing something to some smart mouthed nasty Kid....or...to their Parents.

 

[LuvMyMan]

If they were quads they could have been named "Bing", "Bang", "Badda" and "Boom".

The new Marx Brothers! LOL!

 

[sheeplady]

Introducing the next generation of overprivileged, overentitled upper-middle-class white kids:

Brunswick High School Seniors Want Town To Spend Over $10,000 Cap On Graduation

For those future recipients of corporate welfare -- and their grasping, amoral parents -- for whom folding chairs in the gym just aren't good enough.

This is so far removed from my reality that I don't even know what to make of this... I don't even understand what's going ON. There's a cap on graduation? And some prom is going to cost $7,000? And graduation is going to cost 14,000? Are they off by like at least one or two zeros?



I don't like the idea of selling tickets to a graduation (without giving a certain number of free tickets per graduating student) or making a kid raise X amount to graduate (if you don't raise $100 you don't walk seems very wrong). I have no problems with general fundraising (as a class we must raise $2,000) or *minimal* cap and gown fees (less than $50, if not even less than that), but anything too pricey much should be avoided.

Now I am seriously wondering what my graduation cost... I'm willing to bet next to nothing. Our cap and gown fees for high school I think were $10. Alumni raised money every year to keep the costs that low for us on our rentals.

That school better have the best academic programs in the state and complete arts programs if they waste money like that on unnecessary things like a graduation.

 

[LuvMyMan]

This is so far removed from my reality that I don't even know what to make of this... I don't even understand what's going ON. There's a cap on graduation? And some prom is going to cost $7,000? And graduation is going to cost 14,000? Are they off by like at least one or two zeros?



I don't like the idea of selling tickets to a graduation (without giving a certain number of free tickets per graduating student) or making a kid raise X amount to graduate (if you don't raise $100 you don't walk seems very wrong). I have no problems with general fundraising (as a class we must raise $2,000) or *minimal* cap and gown fees (less than $50, if not even less than that), but anything too pricey much should be avoided.

Now I am seriously wondering what my graduation cost... I'm willing to bet next to nothing. Our cap and gown fees for high school I think were $10. Alumni raised money every year to keep the costs that low for us on our rentals.

That school better have the best academic programs in the state and complete arts programs if they waste money like that on unnecessary things like a graduation.

Well there is also the expense that most Kids today expect...a Graduation Party...they expect to have you shell out some big money...food and some even demand a full bar and band.....and they expect to invite everyone humanly possible to attend it....some standard items for the Party are balloons you have to tie to a sign down the street with an arrow pointing to your home...or if you are smart you would rent a "hall" for it....and aside from any and all family members, the Kids that will show up seem to look a lot older than merely High School age....depending on everything else, expect to have to call your local Police Department to deal with at least one fight that is sure to break out.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Well there is also the expense that most Kids today expect...a Graduation Party...they expect to have you shell out some big money...food and some even demand a full bar and band.....and they expect to invite everyone humanly possible to attend it....some standard items for the Party are balloons you have to tie to a sign down the street with an arrow pointing to your home...or if you are smart you would rent a "hall" for it....and aside from any and all family members, the Kids that will show up seem to look a lot older than merely High School age....depending on everything else, expect to have to call your local Police Department to deal with at least one fight that is sure to break out.

I've never heard of any kid demanding such a thing.

 

[jamespowers]

I've never heard of any kid demanding such a thing.

Look around. You'll find them. :doh:

 

[sheeplady]

I've never heard of any kid demanding such a thing.

Almost all of my friends in high school had them, typically they'd have the extended family and their friend circle. I was probably invited to a dozen the year I graduated. Most were thrown in the parents yard, unless they volunteered with the fire company (two friends) or owned a motel (one friend).

No party for me because I left home the day of graduation. But even in the very working class farming community I grew up in almost everyone had them.

I doubt any of my friends demanded them but it was pretty much expected that you have something for extended family to gather at.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I went to a graduation party at a friend's house. There were six of us there, the little clique who had associated since freshman year, and we sat up all night playing Risk. No band, no dancing, no booze, no sex, no problems -- and absolutely no cost whatever.

We were the outcast kids, however. I have no idea what the rest of the class did, but I heard about some of them getting arrested at a local beach for public intoxication. Idiots.

 

[ChiTownScion]

When my sons graduated high school there was an all night "lock in" at the school. They had a dance, movies, games, entertainment, and the kids were served meals, snacks, and soft drinks. Purely voluntary, and I think the cost was pretty reasonable. We chaperoning parents were impressed by how well behaved and polite the kids were to us and to each other. I suppose that if there were a small group of hell raisers they could have gone elsewhere, but I think the party was a nice opportunity for the kids.

All I had in my day was the senior prom, and I blew it off: it seemed like a ridiculous waste of money. I wanted to get my diploma and get on with my life at the time, and had no interest in an overpriced rite of passage or superficial bonding with classmates with whom I barely spoke. We do that now at class reunions, and it's a lot more fun doing it as adults than it possibly could have been at seventeen.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Almost all of my friends in high school had them, typically they'd have the extended family and their friend circle. I wa s probably invited to a dozen the year I graduated. Most were thrown in the parents yard, unless they volunteered with the fire company (two friends) or owned a motel (one friend)..

Oh I knew of people having graduation parties, just never a kid "demanding" a huge blowout with bands and a full bar and such. Most of my relatives and neighbor kids have had a little something, but it certainly wasn't anything extravagant. I'm sure there are those who have them, but it's certainly not the expected norm for kids *I* know.